Could someone explain the battle between Galileo & Cardinal Bellarmine over Galileo's heliocentric theory?

Answer 1

I think the answers so far have been unnecessarily critical of the Catholic Church. It was in the business of saving people's souls, and as far as natural science was concerned, it reckoned that Plato and Aristotle had found out and written down everything we needed to know, including the geocentric error, but so what. It was more important for people to be thinking about worship and repentance than peering through a telescope and questioning Aristotle. For the late Middle Ages, that was quite a reasonable position.

Galileo could very probably have got away with quietly saying "what the Church tells us to believe about the solar system is factually wrong", but he actually inflated it into "and maybe what it says about other things could be wrong too". He didn't say this directly, but he hinted at it far too obviously. So the Church now saw that he was putting people's souls in danger by undermining their trust in the Church telling them how to relate with God, so they had to put a stop to it. Galileo should have seen that coming, and it was really unbelievably silly of him to have let himself in for it. He should have stuck to the facts.

Answer 2

It has to do with the Papal view at the time of the Earth being the center of the universe and fixed (motionless) with the sun, stars and planets moving around the Earth (orbiting).

By establishing the fact that the Moon and Venus both change phase due to sun reflection off the spheres he was able to demonstrate that the Earth moved around the sun, the moon moved around the Earth and Venus was between the Earth and the Sun.

Since this violated Papal edicts and the Church is infallible it means that Gaello must be wrong, not the church.

Hence Gallelo was forced to recant his own documented observations.

It wasn't Gallelos theory either. It was put forth ages earlier by a mathamatcian skilled in geometery and trig who saw that the Earth as the center of the Universe had some problems with all the circles and in order to solve that problem the circles had to do strange things.

The upshot was, a theory in which the sun was the center and the Earth and other planets moved around it, as well as the moon going around the Earth. This, then, presented no "body" motion or "sine and tangent" problems. It was mathamatically sound.

Once again the Church refutiated this theory.

Galello's observations proved that theory was correct.

Answer 3

Hi. From the web:
(born Oct. 4, 1542, Monrepulciano, Tuscany-died Sept. 17, 1621, Rome; canonized 1930; feast day September 17) Italian cardinal and theologian. He joined the Jesuits in 1560, and after ordination in the Spanish Netherlands (1570) he began to teach theology. He was made a cardinal in 1599 and an archbishop in 1602. He took a prominent part in the first examination of Galileo's writings; though somewhat sympathetic to Galileo, he thought it best to have the Copernican system declared “false and erroneous,” which was done in 1616. He gave impartial attention to Protestant works and was regarded as an enlightened theologian. He died a pauper, having given all his funds to the poor. In 1931 he was named a Doctor of the Church."

They basically wanted to maintain the status quo.

Answer 4

A simplified answer is that up until Galileo offered his heliocentric theory, the geocentric theory was working for everyone because it answered all their questions based on their observations at that time. Scientists did switch to Galileo's heliocentric theory but about 100 years later tossed it away again and went back to the geocentric theory because they felt it answered all their questions based on what they could see. iIt wasn't until better documentation and telescopes came around that the geocentric model was denounced and the heliocentric model re-introduced.

Answer 5

The "catho-holic" [I was brought up one so I can call them that--we seem to have had to go to church soooo much when I was growing up] church at that time was the super power on the planet. They wanted to be the center of power so wherever they were just HAD to be the center of everything--that means the universe too. So he would not end up being burned at the stake like Bruno, Galileo finally denounced his findings and theories but was still sentenced to house arrest for life, not prison. Some text books and accounts still uphold the rumor that as he got up from before the Inquistion, he stated mostly to himself, "But, the Earth still moves" or something like that. As cool as it sounds, it is still just a rumor.
It was not until around 1997AD I believe that the Holy See finally issued a formal apology for the church's treatment of Galileo.

Answer 6

Don't know if this will help. DOn't have details, but I know Galileo was sentences to life in prison for his theory. He was forced to denounce his findings as well. The Government and church had accepted the Geocentric Theory as "Law". He ended up spending his sentence on house arrest for 8 years before he died in 1684

Answer 7

There was a great PBS program about it. By the way, it wasn't Galileo's own theory, it was developed by Copernicus, Galileo just supported it.